Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced that Vaishali Kasture, the interim head of AWS India and South Asia has announced her resignation.
AWS, the world’s largest provider of cloud computing solutions, has major plans in India. In a sign of how important the country is to the Amazon subsidiary, the company will invest $16.4 billion into its Indian operations by 2030.
Kasture had been in post for seven months, having held multiple roles within Amazon for half a decade.
A vacancy at the heart of Amazon India’s operations
AWS has now lost a second senior leader in less than a year as Kasture’s predecessor, Puneet Chandok, left for Microsoft India in August 2023.
Chandok had led AWS initiatives in India and South Asia, focusing on digitization and government services.
AWS has a long-term future in these regions and has made commitments to “help the government meet its objectives with scalable, on-demand services in the fields of education, transport, and farming,” according to the AWS India site.
“The multi-billion dollar AWS investments in India are a long-term commitment to our customers and a testimonial for the promise India holds in the coming decades,” Kasture wrote two weeks prior in a LinkedIn post.
“Our total planned investments in India will be more than $16.4 billion or 1.36 lakh crores by 2030, and we expect this to contribute $23 billion to India’s GDP by then.”
Her departure leaves AWS looking for a third senior leader in India and South Asia before the end of 2023.
India’s developing digital foundations
The world’s most populous nation is now an important investment site for the biggest global technology companies.
The country has a workforce of English-speaking talent that is skilled in emerging technology. Companies like Apple have already invested in the Indian economy to become the biggest producer and seller of smartphones.
Apple announced that India will produce an estimated 50 million devices annually. This is due to labor and production tensions with China, showing a viable alternative for companies like Apple and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), who recently opened its largest global design center in India.
With so many leading technology and device manufacturers investing heavily in India and South Asia, the region looks set to be a hotbed of expansion in 2024 and beyond.
Featured Image Credit: Flickr/Debbie Ding via CC.20 license
